Repurposed small molecule toxin inhibitors neutralise a diversity of venoms from the Neotropical viperid snake genus Bothrops.

Authors

Rachel H Clare, Adam Westhorpe, Emma Stars, Taline D Kazandjian, Laura-Oana Albulescu, Stefanie K Menzies, Nicholas R Casewell

Published in

eLife. Volume 15. Jul 31, 2026. Epub Jul 31, 2026.

Abstract

Snakebite globally claims more than 100,000 lives per year and results in morbidity for 400,000 survivors. Current treatment uses antibody-based antivenoms which are constrained by their efficacy, safety, and cost. In this study we evaluated the efficacy of previously described repurposed drugs against viperid snakes of the medically important Bothrops genus. Despite variable toxin representation and bioactivity across this central and south American genus, we found that the lead inhibitors targeting metalloproteinases (marimastat and DMPS) and phospholipases (varespladib) demonstrated pan-species neutralisation in enzymatic assays, whilst nafamostat (serine protease inhibitor) had variable activity. The metalloproteinase inhibitors protected against the procoagulant and haemorrhagic effects of several venoms in phenotypic assays. Collectively these findings demonstrate that repurposed drugs may be of great value as early interventions for the treatment of bothropic envenoming in the Neotropics and thus provide a strong rationale for their progression into future preclinical and clinical evaluation for snakebite indication.

PMID:
42535473
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 31 Jul 2026.

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